Former aide, printing house become witnesses in David Rivera investigation

@MarcACaputo

A former aide of U.S. Rep. David Rivera and a printing company
have both become witnesses in the federal investigation of the
Republican politician’s ties to an illegally funded congressional
campaign, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have learned.

The
cooperation of former Rivera aide Ivette Pinto and Expert Printing &
Graphics in Doral mark another major milestone in a criminal case that
has already resulted in the guilty plea of Democratic congressional
candidate Justin Lamar Sternad.

Fueled with at least $81,486 in
secret money, Sternad’s campaign was used as a proxy to undermine a
political rival of Rivera, who denies wrongdoing.

Sternad was cooperating with prosecutors even before he formally
admitted Friday that he illegally accepted secret money, lied about it
and schemed with as-yet unnamed coconspirators. In a written statement,
he said he was “used by others.”

Now Expert Printing, which
produced Sternad’s mailers, said they worked directly with Ana Alliegro.
She was Sternad’s campaign manager and is a close friend of Rivera.

“We
were hired by Ana Alliegro to Design & Print Campaigns Flyers for
Justin Lamar Sternad and received full payment for services rendered,”
according to a statement from the company emailed to The Herald/El
Nuevo.

Alliegro’s public whereabouts have been unclear since she skipped out on a meeting with FBI agents in October September.

“Expert
Printing has been fully transparent and [is] cooperating with
authorities since the initial stages of this case,” the statement also
said. “Expert Printing has been and will continue to fully cooperate and
or assist the FBI or any other Legal entity or authority investigating
this case now and in the future.”

Expert Printing is a key player
in the Sternad case and his candidacy. It likely knows who delivered
$15,000 in unreported cash and when.

The company is a longtime
vendor of Rivera’s and other Republican candidates, and may have
produced about a dozen different types of mailers for Sternad, a Cutler
Bay political newcomer and unknown who had no money to pay for it all.

One
Expert Printing-produced mailer for Sternad echoed a line of attack,
originating with Rivera, that savaged rival Joe Garcia over his divorce.
Garcia, a Democrat, beat Sternad in the Aug. 14 primary and then
defeated Rivera, a Republican, in November to capture the new
Kendall-to-Key West congressional seat.

About the same time that
Expert Printing was working for Sternad, it was approached to do a small
print job by a little-known nonprofit Hispanic advocacy group called
Florida Action Network, for which Pinto helped keep the books.

The
FBI is examining whether the money for Florida Action Network was
diverted to help underwrite some of Sternad’s campaign. Two network
founders told The Herald/El Nuevo they never saw the mailers.